Enhancement and Expansion of Children's Programs (Province-wide) Dedicated to the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children. The Manitoba Association of Women's Shelters (MAWS) operates and sponsors a CAPC project called Enhancement and Expansion of Children's Programs at ten member shelters across Manitoba.

The project serves clients of these shelters with children age 0-6 and their families. It was conceived as a way to address the limited staffing of children's programs in shelters across the province, which had been identified by shelters as the association's biggest service gap. The project was instituted at eight shelters in 1994, and two more shelters joined the project at the beginning of the 1997-2000 funding period.

The MAWS project enhances the services that shelters provide to children who are witnesses to or victims of family violence. The project is an attempt to provide consistently high-quality programs for children at all participating shelters. The project also provides outreach and follow-up programming, to maintain contact with and supports for families after they have left the shelter. The outreach component has expanded to include public awareness presentations on family and relationship issues to service providers, parent groups and schools.

Flexibility is an important feature of the MAWS project approach. The ten shelters operate under a common goal, but because they vary in size and program focus, CAPC programs are implemented differently at each shelter - like 10 CAPC projects in one.